How priorities are decided
New tasks are placed automatically when they load, based on the client. The boxes are a work order, do 1 before 2 before 3. The order of priority at TFM is:
- At risk clients land in Do First. Any overdue task also jumps here, no matter the client.
- Competition clients (we are competing against another agency) and onboarding clients are equally important; both land in Do Next, ordered by due date.
- Big clients (6+ concepts per month) land in Do Later.
- Everything else lands in Backlog.
Inside each box, tasks are ordered by client tier, then by due date (earliest first); the number on each card is your work order. You can still drag cards anywhere; your moves are kept on refresh. "Auto-sort" re-sorts the whole board from these rules.
Finding a task. The search box narrows both views as you type, matching the task name, client, category or status. Press / to jump into it and Escape to clear it. Like the filters it only decides what is drawn: work order numbers stay as they were, and nothing is saved or shared.
Filtering and hiding. Filters narrows the board by client, priority, category or status; boxes only draw what matches, and the work order numbers stay as they were, so card 4 is still card 4. Filters are yours alone, they live in this browser and are not shared. Hide on a card takes that one task off the board for good; hidden tasks come back with "Show hidden", and unlike a filter they are part of the board, so they are saved and shared with your link. Neither one touches Notion.
Editing a task. "Edit" on a card opens the task's name, status, priority, due date, client and assignee, and saves them straight to Notion. The due date and the status can also be changed on the card itself, without opening the dialog. Unlike filtering and hiding, this one is for everyone: the task changes in Notion, so every GM's board shows it after a refresh. Changing the client can move the card to another box, since the client is what sets its tier; changing the assignee hands the task over, and it leaves your board on the next refresh. A task with more than one client or assignee is flagged in the dialog, because saving replaces the list with the one you picked. The dialog reads as the task itself: the name and its checklist take the page, the fields that describe it sit down the right, and the circle beside the name ticks it off, which sets Status to Done for you to save. Nothing in the dialog reaches Notion until you press Save, apart from the checklist, where each tick writes at once.
Subtasks. The count on a card opens its checklist, and ticking a line marks that subtask Done in Notion at once. Subtasks are started from inside a task: open it and use "+ Add a sub-task", which asks for the name, status, priority, due date, client, type, category and assignee before anything is written. A subtask is a real task in the tracker, so "Edit" on a checklist line opens the same dialog a card does, name, status, priority, due date, client, type, category and assignee included. "Subtask of" in that dialog is what nests a task under another, or, set back to "Not a subtask", puts it back on the matrix as a card of its own. Opening a subtask says so: the strip across the top of the dialog names the task it sits under. "Delete" asks once and then sends that subtask to Notion's trash, where it stays recoverable for about a month; the banner offers Undo, which takes it straight back out. It is beside the checklist line inside the parent task, and again at the bottom of the subtask's own dialog.
Kanban. "Kanban" reads the same board as columns by status, in the tracker's own order. Dragging a card into another column writes that status to Notion straight away, with an "Undo" on the banner; dropping one in Done closes it, the same as the Done button. Only the statuses in use get a column, plus Not started, In progress and Done, which are always there so there is somewhere to drop a card. Filters, the search box and hidden tasks apply here too, and the work order number on each card is the one it has on the matrix.
Matrix and List. "List" reads the same board as a table grouped under the same boxes the matrix uses, each header carrying its count and folding away when you click it. Inside a group the rows read worst-first: longest overdue at the top, undated work at the bottom. The tabs split it by date, Open, Overdue, Due Today, No Date, Complete and All, with a count on each. Every row keeps its work order number and the header above it names the box, so nothing is lost by switching. Filters, the search box and hidden tasks apply to both views. Complete shows what you closed in the last 30 days, fifty rows at a time; "Reopen" there, or "Undo" on the banner right after a click, puts an accidental Done back the way it was, in Notion and on the board. Which view you were on is remembered and travels in the link (&view=list).
Sharing and saving. The address bar always names the GM on screen (?gm=lucca), so the link in the bar is the link to send: whoever opens it lands on that board. "Save this view" stores your arrangement on the server, so it comes back on any device and anyone opening your link sees it. Without saving, the board still sticks in your own browser.
At risk is not tracked in Notion yet. When an "At Risk" field is added to the clients database, it will be picked up automatically.